Movies

  • Miscellaneous Monday

    Lest you worry about my whereabouts, I decided to post something today. But what? How about some randomness? I noticed the sign above on one of my morning walks recently. In the unlikely event that you’re unfamiliar with the Monty Python skit, you can watch it here. This is my favorite tulip tree in our area. This house has a much bigger one in the front yard, with darker colored blossoms, but this one charms me. I love the way they keep it shaped. One of our local public art pieces, nicknamed ‘Fountain Head’ was taken away for restoration the other day. Not my picture, I saw it on our…

  • Recent Movies

    We’ve watched a few movies lately, The Holdovers, You Hurt My Feelings, and Good Grief. In The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti plays a crusty teacher at an elite New England boarding school, who has to stay behind to chaperone the handful of students that don’t have anywhere to go for winter break in 1970. At first it is Mr. Hunham (Giamatti), the school’s head cook, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and 6 students, but 5 of the students conveniently leave pretty early on, leaving 1 student behind, Angus (Dominic Sessa). Without giving away too much of the plot (I was going to imbed the trailer, but I felt it gave away too…

  • U is for Updates

    This whole NaBloPoMo thing has been great, and my idea of using the alphabet prompts has kept me very organized. I pre-loaded a lot of the posts, so I could spend more time coming to your blogs and reading. This has not always worked, since life does get in the way sometimes, so I’m a little behind in the commenting and reading department, but just like all of us, I’m doing my best. For today though, I thought I would catch you up on what I’ve been up to. I took a very quick trip to Portland a couple of weeks ago to say goodbye to my step-mom’s partner, Tom.…

  • J is for Jules

    Jules follows Milton (Ben Kingsley) who lives a quiet life of routine in a small western Pennsylvania town, but finds his day upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. Before long, Milton develops a close relationship with the extra-terrestrial he calls “Jules.” Things become complicated when two neighbors (Harriet Sansom Harris and Jane Curtin) discover Jules and the government quickly closes in. What follows is a funny, wildly inventive ride as the three neighbors find meaning and connection later in life – thanks to this unlikely stranger. https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/jules We watched Jules on Apple TV a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed it. It’s a gentle…

  • Miscellaneous Monday

    I don’t know what to write about today, so I’m going to just throw a bunch of stuff at you. Here goes. Regarding the meme above, this is how I felt when we were in France last year. The names of the towns we stayed in were pronounced completely differently than they looked to my American eyes. Mougins is pronounced ‘MOO-jan‘ with a soft j, short a, and a soft n. Click the link to hear. Vincennes is a little closer to how it looks, VA-sen, with a short A. One of the stops on our train ride between Paris and Vincennes is Nation, pronounced NA-si-on, with all short vowels.…

  • Friday Randomness

    Cutting straight to the chase, we are all fine. Maya felt pretty crummy last week, improved over the weekend, and is now back to her old self. Her symptoms were mostly her throat, and feeling tired, it never went into her lungs. Unfortunately, COVID hit another family member and his household. They live a couple of hours away and are not vaccinated. It hit them pretty hard, and they are slowly on the mend now. There is no convincing people about the vaccine, so we just sigh and hope for the best. Ted and I never tested positive. Perhaps we had it before Maya did (Ted had some symptoms that…

  • Pandemic Potpourri

    These are the beautiful hand made masks, sent to us by some good friends, for when we go to the grocery store and so on. I cannot sew, and have no idea how to follow a pattern, and don’t have (and have never used) a sewing machine. And I’m the one Ted and Maya come to when they need a button sewn on or something, so of course this task was a lot more than I could handle. Aren’t they lovely? I like how the patterns are all different so we can tell which belongs to who, and that they are hand made by friends. How are you all doing?…

  • Harriet

    Harriet Tubman has been my hero for as long as I can remember. When Maya was little and they were talking about heroes at school, I told her about Harriet, and several years later she told me that at the time, she had pictured her with a cape, flying down like Superman, rescuing slaves from the south and spiriting them north to safety and freedom. I love that idea, but of course, if she had been able to fly, she would not be proven to be as brave as she was in real life. Putting herself into harm’s way, again and again, So, a few months ago when we first…

  • Catching Up

    It’s been a busy time, since last I stopped by here. The entire month of December is gone, and we’re a week into a New Year. So what’s going on? I went to Portland for a long weekend in early December. It was my step-mom’s 70th birthday, and I went up to help her celebrate. Ted didn’t come with me, mostly because of his cat allergies, which means he can’t come inside (or at least not for long) most of the houses for our family. That can work fine in summer, we sleep at a hotel or house sit for neighbors, and we eat dinner in my parents’ back yard.…

  • Grandma

    Grandma is Lily Tomlin’s movie.  There are other actors, such as Sam Elliott, Julia Garner, and Marcia Gay Harden, and they all give nuanced, wonderful performances.  But the story is that of Lily Tomlin’s character, Elle.  Elle is a 70-something grandmother, recently widowed by the death of her long term love. She is a writer and poet, who is down to her last few dollars when her granddaughter, Sage, comes to her for help.  Sage is pregnant and needs money for an abortion, so off they go in search of funds, either collecting from friends who owe Elle money, collecting from Sage’s sometimish boyfriend, selling valuable (?) belongings, or borrowing…

  • Miscellaneous Stuff

    Look at that awesome breakfast. Bagel, toasted, with avocado and lemon pepper. That’s it. So delicious. Served with OJ and tea (PG Tips, a bit of milk and sugar). One nice thing about Facebook is that some people post pictures of their food, and you can choose to be inspired by their pictures. I’m not sure I would have come up with this combination on my own, so thank you Facebook! Then there’s this…the Gluten Free Museum. Famous paintings, with any offending gluten removed. Click the link to see more awesomeness. Are you a fan of the ‘Little House’ books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder? If so, and if you like…